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At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe is living in peace and prosperity. The “Belle Époque” is an outgrowth of previous important historical events and developments. The networks that are created and which evolve funnel both people and their products, tangible and intangible. It is within this multi-layered world that sound recording and sound reproduction is invented. Early record labels send mobile crews literally all over the world to record local musicians. The range of the repertoire is endless. Cosmopolitanism in large urban centers favors polystylisms and polymorphisms. Colonialism, revolutions, conflicts, refugee flows; the theater, cinema, radio, photography, orchestras’ tours, but also circulations in all kinds of commercial channels in a world that evolves dynamically and anisotropically, form a complex network of “centers” and “peripheries” in alternating roles setting musical idioms in motion, both literally and figuratively. The networks in which the Greek-speaking musics participate, constantly conversing with their co-tenants, are magnificent. Discography has already provided important tools in understanding the relationships that developed between “national” repertoires. The result of this ongoing research is “Cosmopolitanism in Greek Historical Discography”.
Naturally, in the large urban centers of the Ottoman Empire around the Mediterranean Sea, the “conversations” of the Greek-speakers with their Turkish-speaking Muslim “co-tenants”, the Catholic Greek-speakers, the Armenians, the Sepharadi and Ashkenazi Jews, the Levantine Protestants, and the Europeans and the Americans, were more than intense. Very often, the scope of this network extends to the Balkans, to Eastern and even to a part of Central Europe. Especially regarding relations between Orthodox and Muslims, the relevant evidence demonstrates the musical exchanges between them and elucidate an ecumene where everyone contributed to the great musical “melting-pot”, and where everyone may draw from it, as well as redeposit it, in a new form, with a reformulated text and its meaning, with sometimes clear and sometimes blurred references to its pre-text, until someone else pulls it out again, through the “melting-pot”, so that it becomes clear that there is no end in this recreational and dynamic process where fluidity prevails. It is worth mentioning that the musical exchanges and interactions between the Greek-speaking and Turkish-speaking Muslims continued even after the events of 1922. A case that comes from such repertoires is this recording.
Starting from the Turkish repertoire, the song appeared for the first time in discography in 1905, in a recording under the title "Ah bénim biridjighim - canto" [Ah benim biriciğim] by [Abraham] Karakaş Efendi in Constantinople (Istanbul) (Zonophone 359r - X- 102158 & Gramophone 15-12212 590).
On the label of the above record the song is characterized as "kanto". In other words, it is considered part of the repertoire of the kantolar, a term that seems to have been first used by Turkish-speaking Muslims mainly in large urban centers and especially in Constantinople since the time when Italian troupes performed there. Although initially the kantolar were associated only with theatrical music, they soon became autonomous, when the term "kanto" (singular form of kantolar) came to describe any popular and light secular singing forms (see Pennanen, 2004: 9, O'Connel, 2006: 276, Beşiroğlu & Girgin, 2018: 49).
In the first decade of the 20th century, three other Turkish recordings for which no audio material has been located were found in the record catalogs:
- "Ah bénim biridjiim", Miran Laoutadji, Constantinople, 1905 (Zonophone 449r - X-102203)
- "Ah benim biriciğim - Hicaz Şarkı", Hafız Âşir Efendi, Constantinople, 1906-1907 (Odeon X 54023)
- "A bénim biriciğim", Agopos Efendi, Constantinople, October 1910 (Beka 1237 - 1237)
According to the data collected so far, the tune was recorded four times in Greek historical discography, in Athens, in 1929, as a composition by Dimitris Semsis or Salonikios:
- "Kamomatou Smyrnia", Antonis Ntalgkas (Diamantidis), Athens, 1929 (Columbia UK 20561 - 18063)
- "Smyrnia kamomatou", Antonis Ntalgkas (Diamantidis), Athens, 1929 (Pathé 70006 - X. 80039)
- "I Maritsa i Smyrnia", Giorgos Vidalis, Athens, 1929 (Odeon Go-1438 - GA 1433 / A 190260 b)
-"Maritsa i Smyrnia", Antonis Ntalgkas (Diamantidis), Athens, November 1929 (HMV BW-2960 - AO-591), this recording
As Giorgos Kokkonis and Maria Zoumpouli point out (2013: 29): "The lyrics, with strong elements of Asia Minor slang, highlight the virtues of Smyrna as a special cultural identity, which is redefined in the new conditions of Athens".
The recording "A benim birijighim", made in New York in the 1920s by Achilleas Poulos in Turkish (M.G. Parsekian 301 - 541 & Pharos Ph 541), should also be noted.
Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis
At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe is living in peace and prosperity. The “Belle Époque” is an outgrowth of previous important historical events and developments. The networks that are created and which evolve funnel both people and their products, tangible and intangible. It is within this multi-layered world that sound recording and sound reproduction is invented. Early record labels send mobile crews literally all over the world to record local musicians. The range of the repertoire is endless. Cosmopolitanism in large urban centers favors polystylisms and polymorphisms. Colonialism, revolutions, conflicts, refugee flows; the theater, cinema, radio, photography, orchestras’ tours, but also circulations in all kinds of commercial channels in a world that evolves dynamically and anisotropically, form a complex network of “centers” and “peripheries” in alternating roles setting musical idioms in motion, both literally and figuratively. The networks in which the Greek-speaking musics participate, constantly conversing with their co-tenants, are magnificent. Discography has already provided important tools in understanding the relationships that developed between “national” repertoires. The result of this ongoing research is “Cosmopolitanism in Greek Historical Discography”.
Naturally, in the large urban centers of the Ottoman Empire around the Mediterranean Sea, the “conversations” of the Greek-speakers with their Turkish-speaking Muslim “co-tenants”, the Catholic Greek-speakers, the Armenians, the Sepharadi and Ashkenazi Jews, the Levantine Protestants, and the Europeans and the Americans, were more than intense. Very often, the scope of this network extends to the Balkans, to Eastern and even to a part of Central Europe. Especially regarding relations between Orthodox and Muslims, the relevant evidence demonstrates the musical exchanges between them and elucidate an ecumene where everyone contributed to the great musical “melting-pot”, and where everyone may draw from it, as well as redeposit it, in a new form, with a reformulated text and its meaning, with sometimes clear and sometimes blurred references to its pre-text, until someone else pulls it out again, through the “melting-pot”, so that it becomes clear that there is no end in this recreational and dynamic process where fluidity prevails. It is worth mentioning that the musical exchanges and interactions between the Greek-speaking and Turkish-speaking Muslims continued even after the events of 1922. A case that comes from such repertoires is this recording.
Starting from the Turkish repertoire, the song appeared for the first time in discography in 1905, in a recording under the title "Ah bénim biridjighim - canto" [Ah benim biriciğim] by [Abraham] Karakaş Efendi in Constantinople (Istanbul) (Zonophone 359r - X- 102158 & Gramophone 15-12212 590).
On the label of the above record the song is characterized as "kanto". In other words, it is considered part of the repertoire of the kantolar, a term that seems to have been first used by Turkish-speaking Muslims mainly in large urban centers and especially in Constantinople since the time when Italian troupes performed there. Although initially the kantolar were associated only with theatrical music, they soon became autonomous, when the term "kanto" (singular form of kantolar) came to describe any popular and light secular singing forms (see Pennanen, 2004: 9, O'Connel, 2006: 276, Beşiroğlu & Girgin, 2018: 49).
In the first decade of the 20th century, three other Turkish recordings for which no audio material has been located were found in the record catalogs:
- "Ah bénim biridjiim", Miran Laoutadji, Constantinople, 1905 (Zonophone 449r - X-102203)
- "Ah benim biriciğim - Hicaz Şarkı", Hafız Âşir Efendi, Constantinople, 1906-1907 (Odeon X 54023)
- "A bénim biriciğim", Agopos Efendi, Constantinople, October 1910 (Beka 1237 - 1237)
According to the data collected so far, the tune was recorded four times in Greek historical discography, in Athens, in 1929, as a composition by Dimitris Semsis or Salonikios:
- "Kamomatou Smyrnia", Antonis Ntalgkas (Diamantidis), Athens, 1929 (Columbia UK 20561 - 18063)
- "Smyrnia kamomatou", Antonis Ntalgkas (Diamantidis), Athens, 1929 (Pathé 70006 - X. 80039)
- "I Maritsa i Smyrnia", Giorgos Vidalis, Athens, 1929 (Odeon Go-1438 - GA 1433 / A 190260 b)
-"Maritsa i Smyrnia", Antonis Ntalgkas (Diamantidis), Athens, November 1929 (HMV BW-2960 - AO-591), this recording
As Giorgos Kokkonis and Maria Zoumpouli point out (2013: 29): "The lyrics, with strong elements of Asia Minor slang, highlight the virtues of Smyrna as a special cultural identity, which is redefined in the new conditions of Athens".
The recording "A benim birijighim", made in New York in the 1920s by Achilleas Poulos in Turkish (M.G. Parsekian 301 - 541 & Pharos Ph 541), should also be noted.
Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis
© 2019 KOUNADIS ARCHIVE
